Forum:The Opposing Force plot makes absolutely no sense to me...
If the Black Ops were going to nuke Black Mesa, which would surely have destroyed the Gene Worm in the process, then why would the GMan have any use for Shephard? It was the GMan's plan to nuke Black Mesa from the start, so Shephard wound up serving no productive purpose at all. Could someone explain why the GMan would go through the trouble of dealing with this grunt? :Sheaperd was being tested by the G-Man to see if he could be useful to the G-Man in the future. SajuukKhar 11:22, May 28, 2011 (UTC) But I thought the G-Man didn't really have a use for him by the way he gave his end-of-the-game speech.Alexcranson 03:11, May 30, 2011 (UTC) :all the G-man said at the end was that Adrian reminded the G-man of himself and that instead of killing Adrian like his employers told him to do we was going to keep Adrian in a place where no harm could come to him and he could do no harm to anyone else. Basically Adrian is being kept as a if my plans don't go well i have a backup guy.SajuukKhar 13:56, May 30, 2011 (UTC) I just played through OppForce again to see if there was any reason for Shepard to be sent on his little missions by the GMan. I do not see how Shepard could have assisted the Black Ops with their nuclear mission since they were doing just fine without any Shepard-related actions, so that was not why GMan sent him; The geneworm would have been nuked, so that's not why he sent him; Gordon Freeman and Barney Calhoun didn't use any assistance from Shepard or his actions... All I can think of is this: All of the evacuating HECU teams must have been shot down in their Ospreys by Black Ops during the evacuation in order to silence ALL of the Marines (since EVERY Marine sent to Black Mesa was a witness, not just those who were left behind), and so perhaps the GMan prevented Adrian from evacuating in order to save his life from Black Ops anti-air interdiction. So, perhaps the GMan was just testing him with no actual plans for use stated by SajuukKhar, but even that makes no sense at all. At the end of the game, the GMan said that he has a soft spot for people who remind him of himself and that's the only reason he kept Shepard alive; the GMan had already determined that Shepard was worth keeping alive while he was in Boot Camp since he bumped him up the lists and decided to send him on these missions prior to any acts of bravery or ferocity, before Shepard did anything that could be considered "surviving against the odds." This means the GMan decided Shepard was totally awesome prior to the BMI, but eventually decided he was totally awesome due to his actions during the BMI, which was all just a big test and not in any way goal-oriented. Therefore, I propose that the Opposing Force plot was just a big hunk of gibs.Alexcranson 20:23, June 22, 2011 (UTC) Na. It just means The G-Man thought Adrian COULD become totally badass before the BMI, so he get Adrian bumped up in the testing list to give him some advanced training. Then when the BMI rolled around Adrian got sent in and showed he could be a total badass so the G-Man took him and placed him in cryo, probably as a "back up plan" in case Gordon went rouge or something. SajuukKhar 20:38, June 23, 2011 (UTC) :...or... Gearbox has no sense of canon or plot, as we have seen with the introduction of "Race X" aliens. I mean, they just threw those in because they wanted to do something on their own, sans canon. I can see how that attitude was applied to the entire game.Alexcranson 00:33, June 24, 2011 (UTC) ::Actually Gearbox games ARE canon. Race X comes from a place different from Xen, they could only access Earth becuase Xen was open, with its closing they had no power to get back into Earth explaining their absence in future HL games. SajuukKhar 02:46, June 24, 2011 (UTC) I though Valve admitted that Race X aliens are not really canon, but were made-up be Gearbox because they wanted to experiment around and add their own personal spin to the game.Alexcranson 03:43, June 24, 2011 (UTC) :All they have said is that Race X doesn't figure into the overall HL saga storyline, as in Valve is not going to use them. SajuukKhar 03:47, June 24, 2011 (UTC) Check, and Mate, Sir. (lol) Alexcranson 17:08, June 24, 2011 (UTC) EDIT - Note, the previous comment was a joke, hence the parenthetical laughter. Alexcranson 18:43, June 26, 2011 (UTC) :That comment didn't make much sense nor did it help the conversation. Opposing Force, Adrian, the nuke going off, and Race X are canon, Valve is just never going to use Race X themselves. SajuukKhar 19:56, June 24, 2011 (UTC) I know the nuke going off was canon, but Shepard had nothing to do with it. The entire Half-Life universe would be the same with or without Shepard, and so I don't think he contributed to canon in any way. Every other game had significant contributions toward canon (except Xen Attacks...), Chloette Green and Gina Cross helped Gordon's activities and worked on the Resonance-reversal in "Decay,", Barney had a major role in the rebellion and getting some scientists out of Black Mesa due to his actions in "Blue-Shift," but the Half-Life world would be unaffected if "Opposing Force" never happened - if Shepard died along with the rest of his squad, nothing would have changed. No additional scientists would have escaped Black Mesa, Gordon would not have been more or less successful, Barney would not have been affected, neither would have Cross or Green, and Black Ops would have nuked the base just the same.Alexcranson 19:15, June 26, 2011 (UTC) ::Valve has said SEVERAL times they want to bring Shepard back, becuase he resonated with people so well, so he is canon. Also according to Marc Laidlaw "i'm not sure that barney is the same barney i'm picturing when i picture valve's barney." The Barney from Blue Shift may or may not be the HL2 Barney. Since we never see or hear from those scientists again and that Blue shift might not have the same Barney, it's just as inconsequential as opposing force. http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?114535-Marc-Laidlaw-Vault SajuukKhar 00:34, June 27, 2011 (UTC) ...so, the Barney in HL2 who was a security guard from Black Mesa who escaped with his life might not be Barney, the security guard from Black Mesa that escaped with his life?Alexcranson 02:16, June 28, 2011 (UTC) ::According to Valve...yes the Hl1:Blue Shift Barney and the Hl2 Barney are not the same in their eyes. SajuukKhar 06:45, June 29, 2011 (UTC)